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9.3.12

DIY 3.1 Phillip Lim-Inspired Collar

Once again, welcome to DIY Friday!

Ok, so NYFW might have re-sparked my obsession with 3.1 Phillip Lim... So much in fact that I was trying to track down a suitable plastic material with which to make a similar collar out of as soon as I finished making a collage of his collection (see it here).

Anyway, that led me onto this random stuff called "Friendly Plastic". It's actually not that friendly in the fact that it likes to stick to everything once it starts to melt. Oh well. Here's some rather slap-dash instructions on how to make your own Friendly Plastic P.L.-esque collar which looks like this:

DIY Plastic Collar

inspired by 3.1 Phillip Lim

Rustle up some Friendly Plastic (from here) in some pretty colours. I chose metallic teal and black.

Cut it into a strip to make the neck bit, and some long triangles to make the collar-tips themselves.

Here's the tricky bit - getting everything to stick together without ending up with one melted great mess. I did not do this right the first time, and if you look closely in the first picture, you can see I accidentally melted a bit of my collar!

Heat up a hot-plate or a griddle large enough for your neck bits to be laid out end-to-end to make a long strip. Place your strips end-to-end on the hot plate on a piece of baking paper, making sure the ends touch so that when it melts (it gets really shiny) they bind to each other.

Don't use a hairdryer or your strip will turn out like this:

(although, I do admit it's quite cool because it looks like leather)

Now take your melted strip off the hot plate and while it is still melted, put your collar-tips into the melted edges to make it bind. The whole lot should cool relatively quickly so you can pick it up (still stuck to your baking paper) and wrap it around a circular object which is about the size of your neck. Hold it there and run some cold water over it to make it set, then rip off the baking paper.

You can heat up the ends of the collar in some warm water (60 degrees) and bend the tips up so they doesn't stab you in the collarbones every time you move.

Now you need to attach it to your neck!

You can either drill a small hole into it, or if you have some overhang from the collar, melt it down and fold it back onto itself, making a small loop:

Then attach a jump ring, some chain and a clasp to it once it is dry:

Et voila!

A little bit messy and not as well-executed as I would usually do for these DIY posts, but you get the idea. Plus I love the metallic green colour so much to not put this up :)

Let me know if you have any Friendly Plastic tips, or your collar was more of a success compared to mine!